I've taken a break from staring at my laptop for hours on end, googling so often my dreams looked like search results - good dreams consisting of me finding perfect, informative websites that inspired and delighted. So, I took a break and crafted like never before! I made a doll for Azalea, that has taken almost a week of sewing and stuffing (and ripping out stitches) to complete. I think it looks really good. I got the pattern from www.magiccabin.com. I also ordered a book called 'wee folk' a pattern book for making tiny wire dolls. We've had friends over a lot this past couple of weeks, crafting till late at night. It has been loads of fun! Azalea helped rolling out polymer with the new pasta machine (I won't be making any lasagna with this aparatus!). We blended so many new colors, I think we did that for 2 days straight. I tried making canes, mokume gane slabs, and mirror beads - I have a new appreciation for all those polymer artists!

I got started on polymer after looking at a miniature artists work I found online, Angie Scarr, who makes the most amazing tiny things! I couldn't believe how detailed she could make an orange 1/12 scale! You could see individual segments! I immediately wanted to make miniature food. Look at her stuff, and feel the desire to become tiny and live in a dollhouse, www.angiescarr.co.uk .

We have never been this busy with orders! We found more of our pieces in the Special Issue of Bead Style Magazine! I wondered why Greg was working till 10 at night! It still hasn't slowed down this close to christmas, which it usually has in the past. Not complaining, we love it!

Kiwi, one of our lovebirds, had blood on the base of his feathers, and I freaked out and took him to the vet. They tested him for diseases and he's fine, apparently he is doing it to himself. I've been giving him meds and he has stopped. I guess he was itchy with new feathers and groomed a little too vigorously (he's completely fastidious!). My powder blue parrotlet Mochie gets so worked up every time I give him his meds! So jealous! I love my bird babies.

I just read Claudine's blog and noticed she tagged me to name 6 weird things about myself that people don't know, I could name far more, but I don't want to give the game away.

1. I'm catastraphobic. I obsess over the destruction of our civilization as we know it, terrified of not having hot water, refrigeration and online shopping. The mere mention of anthrax and Im hunting for my gas mask. The books 'Into the Forest' and the 'The Stand' gave me nightmares.

2. I'm super envious of anyone that can sing.

3. I love to work in absolute silence.

4. I like being alone and not talking for days and days...which happens very rarely.

5. I LOVE dried cuttlefish and shrimp chips as a snack, and could easily polish off a large bag in ten minutes.

6. I would rather look at seed pods than most fine art.

So, I guess I'm supposed to tag someone else to divulge their weird secrets. I think my bro www.andrew-thornton.blogspot.com and my buddy Tony Blackwell at www.zoaart.com should have to next.

Here's a picture of Andrew and Azalea at the park, getting ready to play in the massive playground after our Thanksgiving feast.
We put up the x-mas tree today, Azalea loved helping with the ornaments. It will probably stay up until june.
Today we received news today that we will be the featured artists in BeadWork Magazine spring issue! We are ecstatic, it's such a good magazine - loads of projects that one would actually do (I find lately that many bead publications focus on seed bead crafts, but how many people do you know have time to bead a christmas ornament?) I love Jewelry Arts, but again, really flippin' time consuming! I make a lot of the projects in Stringing - I think it is definitly the most fashion forward one of all. Anyway, we are sooo happy! The last article we were in (Bead and Button 04) really helped our business, allowing us to expand and try new things, like shibuichi casting.

Here are my new earth shoes. They are now extremely comfortable (after intense stretching around the gathered part). So, my walks are a little more strenuous now.

My darling sleeping with 'Roby' (the tattered bit of purple fabric in the background, which I've slept with since I was born!) I hope 'he' lives forever.

These are a few fast paintings I made incorporating layering and pen and ink. I've been trying different styles, but I think I am stuck with the whole foreground, middleground and background theme. Andrew is a whiz at collage and making atmospheric paintings full of textures and subtle coloring. I've been trying to acheive the same depth, and I'm too impatient with all the waiting for things to dry and cutting bits of paper...just give me tempera and I'll be happy. I just like being able to do everything I like! Good luck.






















This is an amulet
necklace I made a couple weeks ago. I like it. It puts me in mind of a shaman or medicine woman







.

Hello! We've had a sluggish couple of days. It's just Greg doing all the work right now (we are out of help at the moment) and I think he needs a break. We won't be able to go to Orlando this weekend because we got rear-ended last night and need to repair the van (and my neck! I still have a headache). A thousand apologies if you wanted to see our booth in Orlando! We will just play catch-up at home, we are still crazy busy with all the recent press and holiday shopping. I usually hate this time of year because of the traffic and trying to get the perfect gift for someone. I like making presents and I love receiving hand-made goods! I make things throughout the year, saving them for months until christmas. I'm making a limited edition ornament for gifts - I just have to finish it. This is an owl bead I started yesterday for Andrew (and anyone else who enjoys owls).
We watched The Fountain a few days ago, I liked it and was annoyed by it at the same time. Beautiful visuals, lovely theme, but really long. I could do without all the long close-ups. A great rental. I'm waiting for the season finale of Avatar:The Last Airbender, I know it will be satisfying, unlike the new Top Chef and other squabble fests. Stop talkin' and start cookin' for crying out loud! I'm done with them unless there's nothing else on. I love cooking and makeover shows for some reason, maybe its all the transformation going on.
I feel like I'm going through a change myself, trying to see myself as a writer as well as an artist. It seems like I just came to terms with seeing myself as an artist. I always felt that title belonged to more 'artsy' people. Folks that made a living from their art. When someone asks what I do (like today, when the stylist asked me if I had the day off - yes and no) I said I make beads and jewelry. I am really fortunate, I stay home with Azalea and make things while shes awake and write when she naps. I started Neil Gaiman's newest collection of short stories Fragile Things, its unexpected and rich, which is why he is my all time favorite. I'm also reading Susanna Clarke's collection The Ladies of Grace Adieu, which is like fairy tales by Jane Austin (how can you go wrong?).
I'm breaking in a pair of Earth shoes I got on www.zappos.com. They are weird because your heel is lower than your toes, making you stand up straight, burn more calories and eliminate cellulite! Wow, I hope they work. Their comfortable, with the exception of a tight spot I'm stretching out. I'm off, Avatar is coming on!

It's the holiday season, so it's been hectic around here (like everywhere else). We celebrated thanksgiving at our house in Asheville and the whole lot drove in from NY and FL to partake in the festivities. Andrew and Sheila brought apple pie and rice pudding from Rice to Riches (a rice pudding shop I love with every ounce of my being, www.ricetoriches.com) along with a bunch of gifts for my birthday (I just turned 32 on the 21st). We had loads of fun cooking and goofing around, not to mention eating like we had one day to live. Greg made a maple-glazed turkey and I made the sides: potatoes anna, green beans,candied white sweet potatoes, Weisel's spinach balls and gravy. I think I'm done cooking for a while, although I did enjoy making a roast in the slow cooker today.
These are sketches I made recently; ideas, new pieces, experiments. Gifts from Sheila and Andrew: glass repro of the coral in The Marriage of the Arnolfini painting, golden twig spoon for sugar, and gold-leaf ink pressed in the shape of a locust.

These are some rocks I carved: (top left)rutilated quartz, labradorite, ruby, r.quartz, ruby, moldavite,(next row) ruby, orange garnet, kyanite, labradorite,ruby, kyanite, sapphire,(last row) kyanite, labradorite, 2 sunstones, moldavite, lapis, garnet,lab., sapphire and garnet. Carving (some)rocks is very relaxing, therapeutic almost. I have a lap grinder and it makes shaping stones easy, the only hard part is drilling (some will shatter). It's a time consuming hobby, but I like carving stones especially for a jewelry piece and giving it as a gift, like an amulet. I can't make them for sale because of how long they take, and I can hardly bear to part with them. They seem magical to me, comforting to hold. I plan to drill a bunch tonight, after Azalea is asleep. I almost finished the texture tool molds today, but I'll finish them tomorrow, I need to do something fun right now. It's pizza night and I'm excited about that.
I've designed loads of new pieces for tucson (new clasps! connectors! Yay!) hopefully I can make them all by february. I've misplaced a few bracelet masters (my desk isn't messy, it's just full) which are supposed to debut in tucson, they'll turn up in some weird place (those pixies!). Maybe I'll try making some rings...I just shudder at having to stock sizes.
Once again our designs are getting ripped off, this time by a company called Oriental Trading.com. I guess they liked our bead holder so much, they cast mine and are now selling it online. I wish I could send them a s**tbomb with a letter lecturing them about how it's bad kharma to steal (especially from artists just trying to make a living). But I won't, just a stern letter asking them to cease and desist or get sued (and then a s**tbomb, even if my lawyer advises against it). I should be used to this crap by now, but it still bugs me. It strikes me as severly lazy (a quality I hate)-why can't the losers sculpt their own bead holder? So, if you want to annoy these creeps as much as I do, email them some hate mail, letting them know they are snatching the food from my babies mouth (feel free to be just as dramatic) www.orientaltrading.com. We would really appreciate any irritating comments in their in-box.
Well, before I get too fired up, look for Greg in Virginia this weekend, he's
doing Jane's Bead Mercantile Show. If you've never attended one of her shows, try to visit one next time they're in town, they are small, but have a good variety of vendors. We do nearly all of her shows. We have only two more shows before our season ends, then we can relax and make fun stuff. I'm hoping to take a trip (one that is pure leisure-no beads!) maybe we can find some cheap tickets to Fiji or Thailand (we found round trip tickets to Rome for 300$ once!) so we can decompress after this year of working like maniacs. Sheila will be in Burma, suffering like a monk at a retreat (and loving it), so maybe we can visit her there. Expect to see her new work at our tables in tucson! Well, I think the pizza's here, good night!

New piece! Inspired by my friend Jeremiah Ketner's painting ' This could be something special'. This is part of a line I'm creating for his small and round work, to be sold in galleries and on his online shop. I hope he likes it. I have a couple of little figurines on my work bench, just armatures right now, but soon to join an army of odd ball characters from Jeremiah's wonderland. O.k. back to work.

Hi! Things are good here, insane busy since Stringing Magazine hit news stands last week (our flying heart pendant is right smack in the middle of the cover). Greg has been spinning beads, filling orders, and pouring silver non-stop. I have been a nice wife, cleaning house, cooking, teaching Azalea new words like 'fried chicken' and doing nothing GGS related. I'm tired of hard work. So I took a break, I have been writing every chance I get (whenever that child is asleep!) and things are looking pretty good. I am unbelievably rusty (art school made me stupid-but I can draw) so its slow going. I feel really guilty, like I'm indulging in some luxiurious way, reveling in my make-believe world. When you run your own business every second of your time feels like you should be working - because you're sure you will go bankrupt if you don't. I should be making new molds, starting new pieces, designing finished jewelry....but I think my brain needs to release this energy, or I might pop. I'm on chapter 3 (amazing!) and I'm enjoying myself immensly. It is as fun as painting or sculpting and equally as frustrating. The biggest problem is forcing myself to go to bed, I'm naturally a night person, but the little nugget is an early riser so I'm on her schedule.
Tomorrow I will make molds! All this fun, people will think we're a bunch of liberals or something (and they would be right)! Moldmaking is a pain in the ass. There is no nice way of putting it- you can spend hours (and generally you will) building a mold, only to discover afterwards that there is some flaw, some reason you have to do it again. I hate making molds, even if I am good at it, but I will because there are like 500 people waiting for their swirly texture tool. I promise I won't start a new project until they are done, even though I have been obsessing over making dolls again. I went through a stage of making loads of doll parts, heads, hands and tiny feet with shoes sculpted on (I LOVE sculpting little shoes, its like making the shoes I wish I had), my desk would look like Vlad the Impalers battleground with all the little parts on sticks, except without all the impaling. Since I'll be making molds anyway, I might as well cast my tiny house sprite ( a little fey person that lives in the unused parts of peoples houses, doing nice things, like running off roaches and finding change), I have all the parts and she is super dang cute! If I can find mine I'll photograph it, but I probably won't, because everytime I say I will put pics of something up, I don't finish it, or my computer won't let me, so I can only post pics by surprise. I think I will make a jointed fairy doll in pewter! I should start right now, so cute, so jangly! Or the day after tomorrow. Here is the word of the day: Boundless. Thinking of that word all day, what it means, what images it conjures...oceans, space, autumn skies...anyway have a good night.

Hello! We have had a pretty good week here in Asheville. Walking around downtown, people watching, sketching and lots of coffee. Slacking you might say. It was our 2nd anniversary on the 30th, and we celebrated by eating sushi, playing outside with Azalea and pigging out on loads of Halloween candy. Two years ago we got married under the old oaks at the botanical gardens, dressed in fairy finery (it was a costume ball, of course),the night was warm, the party a swirling parade of masks. The photographer, Meg Riley (an extremly talented artist)and her partner Alisa became our good friends, and tied the knot on the 28th! They were inspired by the festivities at our wedding and decided to have a masquerade party as well. It turned out beautifully! Everybody dressed up and those without costumes could rummage through the mask box and find something to their liking. They both looked so lovely! Greg and I dressed up like pirates and Azalea got into a Uniqua (a character from the Backyardigans) suit and danced all night with a little Superman. We had a good time. So now we are back on schedule preparing for the big show in San Francisco this weekend.